Kingdom Hearts III: Once in a while
by SunflowerWielder
Summary: Sora, Kairi and Riku return to the island. But somthing from the past awakens. The keyblade war from the past may just save the future... SorKai, maybe slight RikuXOC. T for safety in the later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**You don't need to reveiw this. It's just a prologue thing. The bold and italic bits are a rough translation of 'First Love' by Utada Hikaru. I couldn't think of anything else to use. And I suck at writing poems.**

**Summary: In the past there are many secrects. Some buried, some aren't. Some are closer than you think. When one of these secrects are uncovered, it causes disaster for the three friends...**

_**

* * *

**__**Once in a while**_

Three friends.

_**You are in my mind.**_

Who had no idea of their destiny.

_**I think about the days we've had.**_

Until the storm came.

_**  
And I dream that this would all come back to me  
**_

And the memories were swept away.

_**  
If only you knew every moment in time**_

The truth uncovered.

_**  
Nothing goes on in my heart**_

And they returned.

_**  
Just like your memories**_

_**How I long here to be with you once more**_

Back home.__

You will always gonna be the one  
And you should know  
How I wish I could have never let you go  
Come into my life again  
Oh don't say no

* * *

Sora walked along the beach with only one destination in mind. 

The secret place.

He had only been home for a few days, but he wanted to see where, for him, it all started. And then, only then, could he feel it had ended. Well, of course it will never really end. But for the moment it was over. And he was home. It had never looked so beautiful in his life.

"Is it me, or has this hole shrunk?" Asked Sora to no-one. Thinking out aloud more than anything. Well, he had been away for… Was it a year? He couldn't even remember. And like Goofy had said, he had grown.

Donald and Goofy. He missed them. Not for the first time, he wondered how they were. And everyone else…

_God, I'm fickle!_

He had spent a year trying to go home, and now he was here, with his friends, he was thinking about his friends in other worlds. Ah, well.

He finally pushed himself through the hole, with fairly good grace. He walked along the ground, glancing absently at all the drawings. A beam of light hit him, and he looked up through the hole in the ceiling. He carried on walking and looking. He placed his hand on one of the drawings.

_So many memories._

And he found the drawing he was looking for. The one of him giving a papou fruit to Kairi. And…

Kairi had drawn herself giving him a papou fruit. Sora smiled.

The keyhole was shut. They were all home. Things were fine.

* * *

Sora was wrong. Things were not fine.

Somewhere in the realm of darkness, something was stirring. It had been there through everything, and now it was…

Awakening.


	2. Chapter II: It began with a letter

Sora pulled himself out of the secret place and stood upright.

"BOO!!"

"AH!" Sora fell head over heels, and landed on his back. "Ouch…" He glanced up and rolled his eyes. "Kairi!" She just giggled.

"Hello Sora. I knew you'd be here somewhere! Quite a surprise you're not asleep though!" Sora bit his lip awkwardly. He had a question.

"Kairi…"

"Yes?"

"Did you draw you giving me the Papou fruit?"

"Oh!" Kairi flushed a slight pink. "Of course I did! Who else? Riku? Or maybe Selphie?" She grinned. "Or perhaps Wakka?"

"Okay, leave it Kairi!" Sora had to smile. He had really missed this, just being silly. "It's a good drawing."

"Thanks!" Kairi paused. Sora quickly tried to think of something to say. _Think brain think…!_

"Hey guys!" Wakka ran over to them. "Sora, d'you wanna play Blitzball with Tidus and me?" He frowned as Kairi and Sora started laughing. "Was it something I said? Or did I do something… STOP LAUGHING!"

"Sor- sorry Wakka!" Kairi said between hysterics. "It wasn't anything you did. It was just…" She collapsed into hysterics yet again. Wakka raised an eyebrow.

"You guys are strange. So are you up to blitzball or not Sora? It's me and Tidus versus you and Riku."

"Okay Wakka, I'm coming. Kairi?" He turned to his friend.

"Can I join in?" Sora looked as if he was going to faint.

"WHAT?!" Kairi sighed.

"Can I join in the Blitzball game?"

"Um…" Sora paused. "We'll need to get another player."

"Oh!" Kairi's face fell slightly. "It's okay. Maybe another time." Her tone was flat, which made Sora feel just as flat.

"Tell you what! Why don't you and I take it in turns?" Kairi's face lit up again. She smiled.

"Thanks!"

Riku just raised an eyebrow when he heard the plan. But he nodded and ran to grab an extra blitzball. After the game (Tidus and Wakka won.) the trio ran to the Papou tree just like old times.

"So…" Riku breathed out. "Today was okay."

"Yup." Sora stared at the sea.

"Tomorrow will be worse." Kairi pointed out.

"Huh? Why?" Sora's over-active imagination went into overdrive.

"School starts tomorrow."

"URGH!" Sora and Riku yelled at the same time. Kairi laughed.

"I had to go through a whole year without either of you two guys at school, so don't even try to get out of it!"

"Okay, okay!" Riku held his hands up. "We admit defeat, Madame Kairi!" Kairi grinned and took a fake bow.

"So, let's get going before our neurotic parents call the police." Sora joked, pushing himself upright.

"Yeah, it's getting pretty dark. We won't be able to see where were rowing soon." So the trio left the island.

* * *

Sora lay in bed thinking. All the stuff that had happened in his life, and yet there were still normal things happening. School, Blitzball, and all that stuff. It suddenly came to Sora that he had forgotten everything he had learnt at school. Well, when defeating Heartless, you don't really need to explain the properties of Magnesium. Sora grabbed a textbook, with the idea of cramming.

He was asleep within a minute.

"_Sora… Sora… SORA!!!"_

"_Huh?" Sora looked around. "Hello?"_

"_Look Sharp!" _

"_ROXAS?!" Sora snapped his eyes open. He was on the platform where he had fought Roxas. What was he doing here?_

"_I've been yelling for ages, my voice is going." Roxas sighed. "Anyway, I came to warn you." At this, Sora frowned._

"_Warn me what?" _

"_Sora, there's something not right in the realm of darkness. I mean, really, not right. It's like… Something's waking up."_

"_Nobodies? Or heartless? Wait… How do you know all this anyway?"_

"_Look, I'm a nobody; I have strong ties to the darkness. I can tell when something is not quite right. And, I don't know whether or not it's something to do with Nobodies or Heartless. Just be on your guard, Okay?"_

"_Fine."_

"_Also…" There was a noise like static._

"_Roxas?"_

"_Beware… He… Xeh…" _

"_ROXAS!!" _

_Everything went dark._

* * *

Kairi felt a presence in her room.

"Hello…?"

"You don't need to be scared. It's only me."

"Naminé?" She bolted upright. Her face was full of surprise as she saw her nobody materialise in front of her. "What are you doing here?"

"Roxas and I thought we should warn you and Sora. Kairi, there's something wrong in the realm of darkness. We're not sure what, but be on your guard."

"Okay…" Kairi felt a shiver of fear slid down her back. They had only gotten home. Were they going to be swept away again?

"You shouldn't be scared." Naminé, who could obviously read Kairi like a book, smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "It's probably nothing."

"Okay…" Said Kairi, not quite believing her nobody. The sound of static reached her ears.

"Naminé?" She yelled as her nobody faded from view…

* * *

Riku was sleeping more peacefully than Sora, to start with. But then the dreams started again. Trapped, in Darkness, Castle Oblivion, memory after memory came flying at him. One after the other after the other.

And then they stopped. And he couldn't see anything, the world was covered in darkness, and then…

"Riku!"

The voice slashed through him like a knife.

"Riku, run!"

Riku bolted upright, promptly hitting himself on the bookshelf above his head.

"Ouch…" He rubbed his head. "Stupid dreams…" He quietly cursed school, bad dreams and all sort of other things that he found annoying (Like how long it takes his arm to heal) and pushed himself out of bed.

* * *

Riku sat on the Papou tree, staring out at the sky. His first day of school had ended, and it had been okay. Apart from all the questions. But he was used to questions. And wondering about the dream. He hadn't told Sora and Kairi. It was probably nothing. Unknown to him, Sora and Kairi had done the same.

Sora ran up and leant against the papou tree. Riku had only noticed this lately. He and Sora had switched places. Which was how it should be. They remained in silence for a moment.

"Nothing's changed, huh?" Riku thought of ordinary life, and all the things you had to remember.

"Nope. Nothing will." Riku continued to stare out across the water.

"What a small world."

"But part of one that's much bigger." Sora couldn't help but wonder what was up with Riku. He had been a little off all day. Maybe it was just going back to school.

"Yeah." Sora felt cheered at the slight upbeat note in his friends' voice. There was another pause. Sora had his own question, something that had been bothering him.

"Hey Riku… What do you think it was--- the door to the light?" Riku pushed himself off the Papou tree, laughing to himself.

"This." He tapped Sora chest, where his heart was.

"This?" Sora was confused.

"Yeah. It's always closer than you think." Sora burst into a massive smile.

"Sora! Riku!" Sora and Riku turned to see Kairi running towards them, waving her hand in the air.

"Hey, what's up?" Sora felt worried. _Stupid overactive imagination._

"Look." Kairi held out what she was holding. It was a bottle, with a letter inside. On it was…

The king's seal?

"From the King?" Sora grabbed the bottle out of Kairi's hand. He quickly undid the cork, tipped the letter out, unfurled it, and began to read. Riku and Kairi started to read over his shoulder. The three friends wondered what was ahead…


	3. Chapter III: Blue eyes

**I'm sorry, I know this chapter isn't very long, but the chapters will get longer as more plot is added, and more worlds are visted. And when I get rid of my writers block, XD**

**Oh, and -//-//-//- shows a... Well, call it a flashback, although it isn't, techniqualy.**

**Thanks for the reviews!**

_

* * *

_

_Dear Sora, Riku and Kairi,_

_Welp, I'm in Radiant Garden with Leon. We've been using Ansem's Computer to do some research._

_We were attacked by a lot of heartless and nobodies. As you know, the nobodies should have been completely defeated after you defeated Xemnas. This can only mean something's up. I'm sending Donald and Goofy to Destiny Islands to pick the three of you up. They should arrive at midnight on Monday. _

_Your Pal_

_Mickey. _

Sora and Riku weren't sure whether or not to be upset or to be excited. Inside they couldn't help but think: _We're going on another adventure!_ They looked up to see Kairi was smiling.

"Don't even think for a second you two are going to leave me behind." She crossed her arms. "Remember what I said? At the Alter of the Naught? 'Wherever one of us goes, the other two follow?' Well, that means I'm coming."

Sora and Riku both opened their mouths to protest.

"The letter asks for the three of us! So, I'm coming, okay?" Sora and Riku glanced at each other.

"Okay." Sora nodded. "But first, I'm teaching you some moves."

* * *

"Block it Kairi!" 

Clang!

Riku listened to the training outside the secret place. They had run home to tell their parents and gather supplies, and now they were waiting. And training. Riku clambered through the hole (He also thought it was getting smaller.) and watched.

Kairi was actually quite a good fighter. She frowned in concentration as she blocked another one of Sora's attacks.

"Naminé said something about the realm of darkness." Kairi suddenly said out of nowhere. Sora stared at her in shock, not blocking her attack and being hit on the nose with the keyblade.

"OUCH!" Sora rubbed his nose. "Well, that's weird, because Roxas said something like that as well."

"I thought you said that you weren't able to talk to Roxas, Sora?"

"Well, I can't. But I heard him in this dream I had…" Sora's voice trailed off.

"Stupid dreams…" Riku repeated from earlier that day.

"Why do you hate Roxas so much Riku?" Sora frowned, still rubbing his nose. He knew his best friend hated his nobody, and he wanted to find out.

"Because he's a—" Riku's words were cut off by the sound of engines.

"They're here!" Sora sprinted out of the Secret Place, followed by Kairi and Riku. A Gummi Ship landed not-so-elegantly on the island.

"What do you think you're doing you big palooka!!?" Quacked an angry voice from inside.

"Garwsh, sorry Donald!" The doors of the Gummi ship slid open.

"DONALD!! GOOFY!!" Sora ran over and hugged his friends. "How are you?"

"Fine. Apart from the fact Goofy can't drive the Gummi ship." Donald replied.

"Sorry Donald. Hello Kairi and Riku!" Goofy waved over to the aforementioned Kairi and Riku.

"Hello! It's nice to see you again!" Kairi smiled politely.

"Welp, we'd better get going soon. We're expected in Radiant Garden soon. If we don't show up, the King might worry."

"Why would the King worry?" Riku frowned. He knew King Mickey better than Sora and Kairi, and the King didn't often worry.

"Because of-" Donald started to talk before stopping. "Well, because of all the Heartless and Nobodies around."

"Yeah, well, we can take them!" Sora grinned.

"Yeah, course we can!" Riku and Kairi nodded.

"Well then." Donald looked at the Gummi ship. "We should get going!"

* * *

Sora hadn't faded at all when it came to controlling the gummi ship. Donald was just pleased that Goofy wasn't driving, Goofy was also pleased that he wasn't driving. Riku and Kairi, who had never been in a Gummi ship like this before, were asking endless questions. 

"What happens if you press that button?"

"We all die. So don't touch it." Riku grinned and stepped away from the button in question.

"What did your parents say about you guys going away again?" Goofy couldn't help but ask.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Guys?"

"I knew we forgot something." Kairi face-palmed. "We are so dead."

The rest of the Gummi ship journey consisted of a discussion on whose parents would kill them more.

They decided that it would probably be Riku's.

* * *

"We're here!" Sora proclaimed, opening the door of the gummi ship. Outside was the Radiant Garden. 

"Wow!" Kairi stepped out of the Gummi ship first. "It looks amazing!"

"Looks like the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee did a good job." Riku looked around. The whole world was so different from when he first saw it. When he was being possessed, and it was called Hollow Bastion.

"Why, thank you!" A girl's voice snapped them out of their thoughts.

"Yuffie!" Sora smiled at his friend.

"That's me! Come on, we have to meet Leon and the others at the Castle!" Yuffie ran in the direction of the Castle.

"Does she ever stop moving?" Riku asked Sora.

"No." Sora smiled and ran after the ninja. As they ran across the Bailey…

"Heartless!" Sora leapt into his fighting stance, followed by Riku and Kairi.

"And nobodies!" Five dusks appeared out of the ground.

"And…" Kairi felt her cheeks go red. _Argh! What is that called?_

"What d'ya think it is?" Goofy asked. Kairi felt slight relief, followed by heavy panic, when she realised that she wasn't the only one who didn't know what it was.

"I- I don't know." Sora looked at Riku who shook his head. _Oh crap._

The thing stared at them. It looked like a man in armour, but the head was too streamlined. It was mostly covered in black, with red 'decoration', and its head had white patches on it. 'It' stared at them, before running forwards to attack.

-//-//-//-

_He was going to die. He knew it. The man's grip tightened on his head. He struggled, trying to break free, but it was hopeless…_

_Where was she? His eyes searched the barren landscape. She had to be here somewhere…_

_Blue eyes locked onto blue. He stared at her. He wanted to yell, to scream _'_I'm sorry.' But it was too late. Too late for everything. He felt the chill and was gone._

_-//-//-//-_

_She stared as he fell. He smashed against the barren rock, flakes of ice falling off. She was falling with him. She felt like she was falling through space. A hole with no bottom. No end._

_He landed right next to her. She held him gently. He couldn't be gone. Did his eyes move? Or was it her imagination? She couldn't tell._

_They were bathed in a blue light. She stared up as a blue heart shaped moon appeared in the sky._

_Kingdom Hearts._

_She hated it._

**-//-//-//-**

_He removed his helmet. Anger ran through him where his blood should have been. It couldn't be happening. That… He wasn't even a man. Any human being should have showed regret. But he had smiled. Laughed, practically._

_And blue eyes turned gold._

-//-//-//-


	4. Chapter IV: Green eyes

**Sorry it took me a while to update. I hate writers block.**

* * *

Sora felt a bubble of fear lodge in his throat. This thing was like a human, but something told him it wasn't. 

"OOF!" Riku yelled as 'it' charged into him, knocking all the wind from his stomach.

"THUNDER!!!" Donald yelled, causing lightening to fall on top of 'it'. Kairi ran forward to attack.

"Kairi! Look ou-"Sora's words of warning fell short of his mouth, as the thing summoned what seemed to be a keyblade.

And it looked lethal.

Kairi swung her own keyblade, only to have her move blocked. 'It' then lashed out with its foot, knocking Kairi backwards.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!!" Sora rushed forwards, leapt into the air, and brought the keyblade crashing onto its head. 'It' brought its own keyblade around, knocking Sora side to side.

Sora fell to the floor, winded and hurt. This 'thing' was tough. 'It' glared at them, before disappearing.

"Heal!" Sora raised his keyblade above his head, casting cureagra.

"Thanks."

"What was that?" Riku pushed himself upright.

"Welp, that's a long story." The king stepped out of the shadows. "I never thought I'd see one of those again."

"What exactly is it?" Sora asked helping Kairi up.

"It's a long story. And I'd rather not discuss it out here. Let's head to the castle."

* * *

Riku felt awkward, walking through the castle hallways. _Damm Maleficient… You may not be here, but your still haunting me…_

"LEON!!!!"

_Thanks for the yank back to reality, Sora._ Riku smiled to himself as Sora yelled out all of his friends names at an incredibly high pitch.

"It's great to see you too Sora. We missed you." Aerith smiled at each of them in turn. "Nice too see you too, Riku and Kairi."

"We got your letter." Leon muttered, leaving it at that.

"You better work on that handwriting of yours Sora." Cid chuckled, making Sora frown.

"I used my best handwriting."

"And it was very nice. It's just that Cid is going blind."

"Hey!"

"I could read it, Cid."

"Could'ya call up that data we were working on Leon?" Mickey interrupted.

"Sure."

"I'll help!"

"NO!!" Sora wrinkled his nose up.

"I only asked."

"Sora, last time you 'helped' you got arrested in a computer by cyber heartless."

"How is Tron anyway?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Tron's voice came over the speakers.

"YAAH!!" Kairi leapt slightly. "Sorry. I can never get used to hearing someone but not seeing them."

"No problem. Here's your data!" Some information came up on the screen.

"It's time for me to explain what happened ten years ago…"

The first picture that came up was of an old balding man. He was wearing the same clothes as Xehanort's heartless, and looking at the picture filled them with the same sense of dread.

"This is Master Xehanort." Mickey explained. "He was a keyblade master, one of the greatest of all time. But one day, he vanished, along with his apprentice, Hibiki. Yen Sid sent three keyblade apprentices to find them, Terra, Aqua, and Ven." Mickey sighed, and clicked a few buttons on the computer.

Three pictures came up, one of a male with dark brown hair and blue eyes.

The second picture was of a young female, who had light blue hair and blue eyes.

The third was a teenager, who looked a lot like Roxas, with ruffled blond hair and blue eyes. He was probably the youngest of the group.

"It turned out that Xehanort had turned to darkness, along with Hibiki. I was sent to try and stop a large battle. But I was too late. Aqua and Ven were killed. I never found out what happened to Terra." Mickey paused. He gave a shaky breath.

"Xehanort vanished, along with his apprentice. Around that time, Ansem the wise took in an apprentice, called—"

"Xehanort." Sora finished, realising what was going on. "He was a keyblade master?"

"Yes. That's where he got his high knowledge of other worlds from, making him useful to Ansem the wise."

"But." Kairi frowned. "His heartless and his nobody are gone. What's this got to do with anything that's happening now?"

"We're not sure. But there have been reported sightings of Xehanort in the past few weeks. We have to be sure." Mickey sighed. "Leon, could ya open up the data with the sighting in it."

"Sure."

"I'm not so sure we should do that." Tron's voice crackled. "That file has been opened lately. But not by any of the Radiant Garden restoration committee."

"Well, who else could it have been?"

"I have no idea." Tron gave a cyber shrug. "They used a tempory account that they deleted right after getting the data."

"Could it have been…?"

"I doubt it." Mickey shook his head at Yuffie's question. "He already knows everything in this data."

"But who…?"

"I don't know." Mickey sighed. "First things first: We need to secure the World that Never Was."

"Why?" Everyone frowned.

"The World that Never Was is a perfect hiding place. If Xehanort is back, he could well go there, and use it as his headquarters."

"But the World that Never Was is a new world. How would he know about it?" Leon frowned.

"Xehanort is Xemnas and his heartless combined, except even more powerful." Mickey explained. "Since Xemnas found the World That Never Was, he would know about it."

"I see."

"G'yuck, we'd better get moving then!" Goofy smiled.

* * *

Riku stared out of the window of the Gummi ship. Something was bothering him, niggling away. The fact that Xehanort is probably back was one, but the other was the voice. 

It was familiar.

Yet…

He couldn't recognize it.

"Riku? Are you okay? You seem kind of… distracted." Kairi watched him, her violet eyes were worried.

"I'm fine. Just thinking."

"Mmm…" Kairi's eyes said, quite bluntly, _I don't believe you._ But she didn't push the point.

_What is she so worried about…?_ Riku yawned, and felt his eyes flicker shut.

"_God, you can be so fricken DUMB sometimes!"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_I mean, you've fallen to darkness, you can do it again."_

"_I'm not goi—"_

"_Better people than you have fallen to darkness numerous times." Her voice was angry, bitter._

"_There's no need to get so angry!"_

"_I'm just worried about you." She sighed. "Talk about stubborn!"_

_They laughed, and everything was fine again._

_In less than 3 months, he would take Ansem's form._

"WAKE UP RIKU!!!"

"YAH!!" Riku bolted upright.

"We're here." Sora grinned. "You slept all the way through the journey. Did you know you snore?"

"No I don't!" Riku sighed, still trying to place that memory.

"Aw, come on you big Palokas!" Donald yelled from the doorway. Everyone ran out into the streets of the world that never was.

"Let's head to the Castle." Sora decided, before running in the direction of the Castle, followed by everyone else.

No-one noticed the piercing green eyes following them.

* * *

**Dun dun duuuun! Don'tcha love a cliffhanger? I sure do! I know I'm a bit mad when it comes to eyes, but I think that eyes are like gateways to a persons soul; you can tell a lot about a person with their eyes. Well, that's what I think anyway.**

**Disclamier: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Commit it to memory.**


End file.
